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Browser support

latest

Introduction​

Arc UI System is intended for use in BT Enterprise projects serving UK audiences.

This document explains which browsers Arc supports. We'll review this document every quarter.

⚠️ Project teams that use Arc are welcome to use this document as a basis for their product's browser and device support but do not have to do so.

Some projects would be better served by using a smaller support footprint, and should determine based on their unique needs. In rare cases, projects may need a larger support footprint than that offered by Arc and owners of these projects should contact the Arc team to discuss.

Rationale​

The ultimate purpose of this browser and device support is to improve customer experience. We can use it to help us get close to using websites as real customers do, helping us spot problems before customers do.

One approach to this would be listing every browser and device combination that we expect to be used by more than a certain percentage of users. However, this approach can lead to an unrealistic testing burden.

Instead, we aim for a balanced approach: enough testing to be genuinely useful, but not so much that we needlessly duplicate effort.

We used the following data to determine support in this version:

Browsers​

Browsers we support​

By "support", we mean that we'll aim to resolve any issues reported while using a supported browser. However, this doesn't mean we'll proactively test in all of the supported browsers; see Browsers we test in for details.

We support all mainstream operating systems that a browser is made available for.

We only list specific versions for browsers that don't use evergreen release cycle (e.g. Safari) or are using a long-term support lifecycle (e.g. Mozilla Firefox ESR).

Supported browsers​

  • Google Chrome stable channel latest(2)
  • Google Chrome for Android stable channel latest
  • Microsoft Edge stable channel latest
  • Mozilla Firefox release channel latest
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 68.x
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 78.x
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 91.x
  • Safari 14.x
  • Safari 15.x
  • Safari for iOS 14.x
  • Safari for iOS 15.x
  • Google Chrome for iOS(3) 14.x
  • Google Chrome for iOS(3) 15.x
  • Samsung Internet stable channel 16.x

Browsers we don't support​

There are some browsers that we do not plan to support. Many of these are used widely outside the UK but not within the UK. Some have previously been popular but usage has reduced significantly.

For the avoidance of doubt, we explicitly list these browsers. Please note that this list is not exhaustive.

Internet Explorer 11​

Retired.

Microsoft Edge Legacy (versions ≤18)​

Fractional use worldwide.

QQ Browser​

Often shows up in worldwide stats. Popular in China, rarely used elsewhere.

UC Browser for Android​

Often shows up in worldwide stats. Very popular in China, rarely used elsewhere.

Opera Mini​

Nudges over 1% usage worldwide, but little usage in the UK.

Browsers we test in​

These are the browsers we actively test Arc with.

We aim to find a balance between coverage and minimising the testing burden by grouping browsers to represent particular rendering engine families (e.g. we presume that all browsers running a version of Blink will render the same way).

  • Google Chrome stable channel latest
  • Mozilla Firefox release channel latest
  • Safari 14.x
  • Safari 15.x
  • Safari iOS 14.x
  • Safari iOS 15.x
  • Samsung Internet stable channel 16.x(4)

Upcoming browsers​

This is a list of upcoming browsers we're monitoring for potential future support.

  • Next Mozilla Firefox ESR
  • Safari 16.x
  • Safari and Google Chrome for iOS(3) 16.x
  • Samsung Internet 17.x
  1. StatCounter charts only give a high-level view; interested parties should explore the raw data behind each chart for a more nuanced view.↩
  2. By "latest", we mean the most recent version available on the browser's stable release channel at the time of testing. We don't use the "last two versions" strategy because evergreen rollouts are so rapid these days.↩
  3. For iOS apps, Apple requires that "Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript". Google Chrome for iOS is effectively the same as Safari for iOS in terms of page rendering; we have listed them separately for clarity.↩
  4. While Samsung Internet also uses the Blink engine, the release cycle is not evergreen so Blink engine version tends to lag behind others. It also has a strong showing in the UK, so we list separately.↩